In an athletics sprint race, such as a hurdle race, it is very important to be highly efficient during the race, particularly when crossing each hurdle. In particular, the hurdle race can be a 60 m, 100 m, 110 m or 400 m race. Clearance or passage of each hurdle is technically difficult and demands good coordination of the movement of the legs of the athlete to be the fastest for the entire duration of the race. Thus, during training the passage time over each hurdle can be an important parameter. There are already hurdles equipped with sensors, e.g. integrated into a section of the hurdle in order to detect the passage of the athlete for this purpose. For simplification, the measurement of the time is conducted manually by the trainers by frequently taking the time when a leg of the athlete touches the ground after passage of the hurdle. There exist tables with the optimum times for crossing each hurdle to define a given finish time of the athlete.
Patent application TW 201134517 A describes an analysis system for a hurdle race. The system comprises several hurdles arranged on a ring-shaped track, several detection devices and an analysis device. Each detection device comprises an approach sensor, a vibration sensor and a touch-sensitive sensor. When the athlete runs and jumps a hurdle, the approach sensor sends a passage signal. When the athlete hits a hurdle lightly, the vibration sensor sends a vibration signal. When the athlete hits the hurdle heavily and it falls, the touch-sensitive sensor sends a contact signal. The analysis device can then calculate the time between two successive hurdles, the race speed and the fault times for training references. There is no provision for controlling or predicting a race time on passage of each hurdle in order to determine the position and estimated time of each racing athlete, which constitutes a drawback.
In a 400 m hurdle race, for example, this race begins on a bend, which makes it difficult for spectators to see each athlete and know which athlete is ahead in the race before seeing them on each straight section of the race track. There is no possibility of supplying the passage time over each hurdle in real time during a race. Knowing or estimating the passage time over each hurdle may make it possible to predict what the final race time of each athlete will be.
According to the prior art, it is not known to estimate or predict a time of each athlete in such a hurdle race on the basis of optimum times, in particular after passage of two or three hurdles. With this, it would also be possible to determine a position of each athlete in order to know which athlete is ahead in the race, in particular in a 400 m hurdle race, which is sought in the present invention.